


Triple Lutz

by shadow_of_egypt (Shachaai)



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: AU - Modern Setting, Gen, Ice-Skating, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2009-10-14
Updated: 2010-04-24
Packaged: 2017-10-12 22:18:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/129721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shachaai/pseuds/shadow_of_egypt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fai D. Fluorite is a competitive ice hockey player, very much in love with the world on ice. A tragic accident during one game, however, forces him to drop the sport he loves, and he rapidly sinks into a semi-depression. To try and restore some of his previous passion for skating his brother and the once-champion skater Yuuko tie him up with the figure-skater Kurogane, a serious professional who sends the majority of his partners scurrying in fright, and doesn’t care for Fai’s defeatist attitude. They could be great together…but, before they admit that? Hell will freeze over first. AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is all Eli-from-Kiseki’s fault. I somehow got set up into writing this, and I’m still not even sure how. *had been talking about squirrels, sob* Apparently the plot is based loosely on the film ‘The Cutting Edge’, but I’ve never seen it, so – *sailing blind, here* Just a general disclaimer – I don’t own that film, and I don’t own CLAMP’s characters.  
> *Forgot to mention: I'm using the Horitsuba order for the twins again. Fai is our!Fai, Yuui is real!dead!Fai.

_Turin, Italy, February 2006  
_

 

Fai D. Fluorite was good at what he did, and very glad he was good at it. No-one who looked at him would think a man with such a slender build could possibly be involved in the competitive world of ice hockey – but involved Fai was, quite highly too. His team were up to the Olympics and he, a defenceman, was looking forward to the games only a few hours ahead.

“Nervous?” His brother looked in on him in his hotel room, Yuui’s expression sympathetic.

Fai looked up at him from where he’d been plucking at the curtains, smiling back rather ruefully over one shoulder. “A little.” There was a lot riding on this. “Is your room alright?”

“It’s amazing – _everything_ here is.” Yuui strolled in, joining his twin at the window to look out onto the city of Turin. “I rode up in the lift with three sporting celebrities, and we discussed pastries.”

“Mm,” Fai laughed, amused his brother could find a fellow food-enthusiast wherever he went. “You promised me a…what was it called again? A gally-something, whilst we’re in Italy.”

“A _galani.”_ Yuui corrected. “You’ll like it.”

Fai leaned back into him, put at ease by the other’s presence. “It’s got sugar in it?”

“As I said,” Yuui smiled, nodding and wrapping an arm loosely around his sibling’s waist. “You’ll like it.” Fai’s sweet-tooth was horrendous.

Fai laughed again. “I’ll take your word for it.”

* * *

Yuui sat impatiently in the VIP seats, waiting for his brother’s game to start. He knew Fai was getting ready somewhere out of sight with the rest of his team, wrapping himself up in the protection that was necessary for the rather aggressive sport. Sometimes he wished Fai had chosen some other sport than ice hockey – the sport always seemed so _violent,_ and he worried that Fai would end up hurt -, but it was the game his brother loved, smiling and laughing and ever-waving as he’d skated out onto the ice during practice, for his earlier games.

“You know someone that’ll be going out there?” The woman sitting beside Yuui spoke – the blond had been placed with the family members, close friends and significant others of the competitors in the ice hockey games, a few of the other sportsmen and women occasionally fluttering through, killing time between their own displays and competitions.

Yuui nodded, rubbing his hands together from the cold. He really should’ve worn gloves. “My brother.”

“The Russian team?” The woman was clearly looking at his fine colouring. Yuui nodded again, and the stranger smiled, red lips curving in a knowing way. “All the best to him then.”

“And you, Ms…?”

“Ichihara. Yuuko Ichihara.” Yuui blinked once, recognising the name. Wasn’t that-? “Of course,” ‘Yuuko’ confided almost immediately after, “that’s not my real name.”

“Right.” Another blink. If Yuui wasn’t wrong, Yuuko Ichihara was the name of a Japanese professional figure skating champion from a few years before – hadn’t she gone into coaching? She supervised some…hot-tempered upcoming male Russian skater and his sweet-faced partner, the news had said (not that Yuui had been focusing all that much, looking for information on his brother). Either way, she looked pretty good for her supposed age.

“I got temporarily kicked out of the hotel after my tutee finished his short program the other day,” Yuuko remarked idly, plucking out a small silver flask from one of her coat’s deep pockets and taking a drink – it smelled potently alcoholic. “He threw a lamp at my head.”

“…He lost?” The suggestion was a mild one.

“He came first.”

“Oh.” The world was insane. “Congratulations?”

“He has the free program to get through later this evening, but he’s forbidden me from watching him. He said I was _distracting._ ” Yuuko sighed melodramatically, sprawling back in her seat, limbs all akimbo and her rather indecent dress riding up her legs. “Do I look distracting to you?”

Yuui felt what could have possibly been a mild headache coming on – talking to Yuuko felt a lot like talking to a half-drunken Fai. “I’m sure your tutee meant your being forbidden in the very best way, Ms. Ichihara. This way he can focus all his attention on his performance?”

The woman snorted. “He would’ve done that anyway – Kurogane doesn’t know how to have _fun_.” She pouted. “He hid all my sake – and after Watanuki-kun carried it all the way to the hotel for me too!” Another sigh. “You never gave me your name, Mr-?”

“Yuui Fluorite.” Yuui pitied whoever ‘Watanuki’ was. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Then pray point out your brother to me when he comes on, if you please, Mr. Fluorite.” It sounded almost like a command. “I would’ve liked to have tried to guess which one he was myself by his looks, but the helmets they wear in this game make it awfully hard.”

Yuui smiled. “I’d be glad to.”

They made further small talk as they waited for the game to start, Yuuko draining her flask and tucking it away out of sight once more the moment the two teams came on, the noise of the packed stadium trebling and trebling again at the prospect of the sport to come. Yuui obligingly pointed out his brother as soon as Fai came on; both he and Yuuko following the figure through the game, watching Fai weave through the packed bodies on the ice.

“He’s good,” the woman remarked halfway through the game, seeing Fai deflect the puck from the half of the rink he was defending, sending into careening over to a teammate on the other side.

“He is,” Yuui agreed, pleased. “Fai loves skating – he has done ever since we were small. Ice hockey just seemed natural for him.”

“Oh, he -” Yuuko halted mid-sentence, gaze suddenly sharpening on the rink, and Yuui twisted about just in time to see his brother trip, fall, someone from the other team going down with him in a tangle of limbs and sticks and sharp, _sharp_ blades, a clatter that echoed through and over the crowds, followed by the shrill shriek of the referee’s whistle.

The other player got up almost straight away afterwards, a little shaky, grabbing at his stick. Fai, on the other hand, _didn’t –_ and there was red suddenly pooling on the ice. 

“Fai -” Yuui felt glued to his seat, frozen, the medics rushing out onto the rink when the referee frantically beckoned them, Fai unmoving, sprawled out. They hurried to him, slipping on the rink’s surface, around Fai and blocking him from his brother’s view –“ _FAI_!!”

* * *

  


* * *

 _Tokyo, Japan, July 2009  
_

 

“She’s the third one you’ve rejected this month.” Yuuko sighed as she watched her tutee’s latest attempt at a skating partner stomped out of the room with the rink, not even bothering to take off her skates. She slammed the door behind her – _sayonara,_ attempt number twenty-three. “Really Kurogane, I didn’t raise you to have such terrible manners.”

“You didn’t raise me at all!!” Kurogane drew to an irate halt before his coach, all but stamping his blade on the ice in (what Yuuko saw as) his petulance.

 _“Whaaat?”_ Yuuko feigned being scandalised. “After I gave you such tender loving care -”

“You call drinking me out of my home ‘ _tender loving care’?!”_

“- Nursed you through your sicknesses -”

“You _made_ me sick more often than not.”

“ - Fed you -”

“You made the flaily kid cook.”

“- Clothed you -”

“I bought my clothes _myself.”_

“ – Tucked you up in bed at night -”

“You did _what.”_

“It’s true~!” Yuuko clapped her hands, eyes sparkling. “Kurogane is terribly cute when he cuddles his pillow.”

Kurogane glared at her. “I do _not_ cuddle my pillow.”

“You do, you do!” His coach began rifling around in her purse, withdrawing some rather dog-eared photographs and presenting them with a dazzling smile. All of them were candid shots of Kurogane asleep, and in nigh _all_ of them the skater was, indeed, cuddling his pillow.

Kurogane immediately made a grab for them.

“Ah, ah, _ah~!”_ Yuuko pulled them out of reach, waggling one finger at the man chidingly.

“ _Give me those.”_ Kurogane did _not_ want to know why his coach carried around pictures of him in her purse. Really, he didn’t. Just as long as those photos were little more than multicoloured confetti, post-haste.

“Kurogane’s been a bad boy, just recently.” Yuuko held the pictures just out of reach. “You’ve been sulking terribly ever since Turin.”

“Like hell I have, witch.” He was a grown man. Grown men didn’t sulk.

“So you took a fall on the ice; it’s no reason to be eternally angry at Tomoyo-chan -”

 _“I’m not angry at Tomoyo!”_

“But,” Yuuko said, tucking away the photographs, “you _are_ angry _._ If not at Tomoyo-chan then – at who? Yourself? She didn’t quit professional skating because of _you,_ Kurogane _._ ”

Kurogane scowled, and glanced aside. “It’s none of your damn business.”

“It is currently very _much_ my business, Kurogane, when you keep scaring all your partners away.” Yuuko had returned to her chiding tones. “There are only so many Russian skaters of a high enough quality around to partner you and still have you both considered a viable entry for the Olympics – must I remind you that the event is next year?”

 _“No.”_ The reply was growled out.

“Then,” said Yuuko, and smacked her tutee upside the head with her handbag, “learn to play nice!”

* * *

  


* * *

 _Novosibirsk, Russia, August 2009_

 

Yuui stood in the centre of the rink and watched as his brother circled it, once, twice, three times, faster and faster, actions as smooth as they’d ever been, his face shadowed by his golden hair. Fai didn’t smile when he skated anymore – Turin three years before had stolen that from him, and replaced it with a thin scar beside his left eye. The mark was barely noticeable to anyone looking at him, but it was painfully obvious to Fai himself, the visible sign of what he’d lost.

“Fai…” Yuui watched a little helplessly as his twin made another loop of the rink, not looking at him. He’d thought to make Fai feel a little better by taking him to the ice rink in the times when it was quiet, but pulling on the skates had only seemed to have made Fai drawn even more into himself.

 In Turin…Fai had lost the peripheral vision in his left eye in Turin, knocked out cold by a blow with the ice and someone else’s blade dragging sharply across his cheek and temple. He could still see out of the eye – the doctors had called it a miracle and said Fai should’ve been thankful to retain his sight -, but it made little difference to the hockey-player in the long run. Without his peripheral vision the game – his life – suddenly became so much harder, and he had been forced to retire from the Olympic team. The fact he could still skate so very beautifully was like a slap to the face.

“Fai,” Yuui skated closer to his brother, trying to draw the other out of his reverie, “do you want to go now?”

“I’m fine, Yuui.”

“Fai -” Yuui cut himself off when he felt something buzzing against his thigh, his phone vibrating in his pocket. He went to the side of the rink to answer it, leaving Fai to do his circuits, frowning at the screen’s declaration of _‘unknown number’._ “…Hello?”

 _“Mr. Yuui Fluorite?”_ The voice on the other end seemed vaguely familiar.

“Speaking.”

 _“My name is Ms. Yuuko Ichihara – I don’t suppose you remember me?”_ She was rather a hard woman to forget, not that the events of that day weren’t already imprinted firmly in Yuui’s mind. _“I’d like very much to meet and talk with you – would that be possible, do you think?”_

* * *

  


* * *

 _Moscow, Russia, August 2009_

 

“Did you know,” Yuuko calmly enquired, as she poured out some rather civilised cups of tea in the café they were in (Yuui was vaguely surprised at the location, he’d somehow thought the woman before him would’ve preferred meeting in a bar), “how remarkably easy it is to find personal information on the internet these days? Names. Addresses. Phone numbers, to name a few examples.”

Yuui took the cup she offered him. “Is that how you found mine?”

“No.” Then why had she mentioned the _internet?_ “A few of my contacts gave me the information to get in touch with you. Your brother might have dropped out of the skating world, but the bonds he made once still linger.” Yuui winced at the reminder of the thought that was currently plaguing him. “My condolences for what happened, by the way. Your brother really was a promising hockey player.”

“…I’m just glad he didn’t lose his eye.” The confession was a guilty one, blurted out to the strange woman with the knowing red gaze. Yuui hadn’t even admitted that to his brother.

“Does he still skate?” Yuuko wasn’t looking at him as she drank her tea, picking at one of the cakes she’d ordered to go with her drink. “Your twin, I mean.”

“How did you know-?”

Yuuko bit into her dessert, clearly enjoying it. “Contacts, Mr. Fluorite.”

Ms. Ichihara was making Yuui feel more than a little paranoid. “Fai still skates. He doesn’t enjoy it the way he used to -” he looks like he hates himself every time he steps on the ice, “but he still skates.”

“A lack of motivation, do you think?”

“A lack…of _feeling.”_ Fai was smooth and professional, but mechanical.

“What would you say,” Yuuko ventured, chin on her threaded hands, “if I said I could think of a way to try and reinvigorate your brother? To give him back some passion for the world on-ice.”

“Then I’d say, Ms. Ichihara, that you would be a worker of miracles.” Skating was dead to Fai.

“Would you let me try?” Yuuko persisted.

“I wouldn’t try to stop you.” Yuui had forgotten his tea. He loved his brother. If something might help Fai –

“Would I be able to come and observe him skating before saying anything definite?” The woman had to be a professional stalker. Or a P.I. But probably a stalker.  

“Alright.” Yuui gave her the address of the rink he went to with his brother from time-to-time, writing it down and watching as she folded it and tucked it away on her person.

“I’ll call you to arrange a meeting again,” Yuuko said, and finished her own tea, rising to her feet. (The tea and cakes had already been paid for.)

“I’ll wait on your call,” Yuui replied, mostly to himself, and watched as Yuuko Ichihara breezed out of the café door. His initial impression of her had been right – she _was_ a weird woman.


	2. Chapter 2

_Novosibirsk, Russia, August 2009_

 

“You want to go skating again?”

Yuui tried not to falter as his brother looked at him, seemingly genuinely perplexed, the dishes Fai had been collecting from the café out front forgotten in his hands. “Yes – what about this weekend?”

 _“Why?”_ Fai looked good in _The Cat’s Eye_ waiter’s uniform, clean and crisp in black and white even as his blue eyes focused on Yuui with the stirrings of unnameable suspicion. Yuui, the part-owner, had established the café with money his brother had originally loaned him, designing the uniform with his twin in mind, as Fai, the other owner, had come to help around the place when he hadn’t been busy with hockey. Ever since Turin, however, Fai had worked there mostly full-time. “We went last week.”

“…We used to go every other day.”

Fai set his plates down, the crockery clattering loudly on the kitchen bench. “I’m going to be doing my gymnastics this weekend.”

“You never mentioned that.” Yuui tried to properly smile, he really did.

“I just remembered.” Fai’s smile was a much better lie. He switched it on and off at will, Yuui watching quietly from _The Cat’s Eye_ kitchens as Fai charmed the young ladies that frequented the café, the way they giggled and swooned for his brother. “I’m sorry – maybe we could go some other time?” So basically – never.

“I’d like to,” Yuui said, but his brother only smiled his sweetly fake smile again, and swanned back out to take the order of a young couple who had just walked in.

* * *

Fai hadn’t lied, when he said he was going to do gymnastics at the weekend. He _had_ lied, however, when he’d said he’d forgotten about it – really, the plan had been made up on the spot the moment Yuui had suggested they go back to the rink again; Fai really didn’t want to set foot out on the ice again so soon.

Fai changed from his casual clothes to his practice ones in the gym’s changing room, holding back a shiver at the chill in the air, his outer layer now clinging so much closer to his skin. It sometimes felt that he might as well have been born in the clothes – he and Yuui had taken gymnastics from a pretty young age, fascinated by the acrobats at a travelling circus their mother had taken them to once. Yuui had dropped the practice after a few years and taken up archery instead, but Fai had pushed on, liking the knowledge it gave him of his own body, knowing how far he could push himself. It had been handy once he’d started hockey – he was already fit, and fast, and the team coach had tried to encourage others to take up the exercise as well. Of course, he couldn’t play professional hockey anymore but –

Fai had hired a private area and it was to there he took himself, carefully doing his stretches so he wouldn’t pull a muscle later. He was shut off from the world, hearing only his own breathing, his own heartbeat, the whisper his fringe made as it fell around his face, moving with his movement. He went into his exercises on the floor mat, losing himself to what he could still do, letting his flips grow harder, harder, longer, as he pushed himself further and further. Practice had made him flexible and he flung himself through his moves without too much strain – that was, of course, right up until he was halfway through a back hand spring and, upside-down, he caught sight of someone dark watching him at the door. Surprise jolted Fai out of his peace and he forgot to push his hands down to brace himself in time, his forearms wobbling with sudden pressure as his whole weight came down and slammed his torso into the floor.

As soon as he’d got over the pain – his ribs _hurt –_ he rolled over, pushing himself up into a seating position with his legs spread out, looking vaguely annoyed at the stranger at the door. “How long have you been there?” He should’ve seen him, should’ve seen some movement from the door’s opening, but the entrance was on his blank side, and his focus had been elsewhere. (It wasn’t only his ribs that currently stung.) “Don’t you know it’s rude to watch someone in a private session without their permission?”

“Your private session ended a good twenty minutes ago.” The stranger was tall and broad and damnably confident of himself, strong arms folded across his chest as he leaned back against the wall beside the door, red eyes intent on Fai on the floor.

Fai’s head whipped towards the clock – it was true. Immediately he pushed himself up of the ground, brushing down his legs reflexively to remove whatever dust he might’ve picked up from the mat. “Why didn’t you stop me?” People paid good money for the private areas; it wasn’t like someone to sit by and watch whilst someone else was using up their time.

“You looked like you needed it more than me.”

Fai actually flinched at that – was he really so obvious? He pasted on a smile when he saw the stranger follow the reaction, feeling it hanging heavily around his mouth and refusing to touch his eyes. He closed them instead, presenting the image of a smiling fool.  “Mr. Black is terribly kind for worrying so about me.”

“‘Mr. _Black’?!”_ The stranger looked affronted.

Fai kept smiling. “It’s not like Mr. Black gave me his name.”

“ _Why the hell_ would _I?!”_

“So Mr. Black didn’t have to be called ‘Mr. Black’~!” Fai laughed when the other – _taller –_ man took an angry step forwards, the stranger’s fists dropping to clench at his sides. Fai lowered his lashes, deliberately flirtatious. “He must secretly like it.”

“You,” the stranger told him flatly, “are an _idiot.”_

“I’ve heard it takes one to know one, Mr. Black~.”

 _“Stop calling me that.”_

Fai only laughed again at his companion’s temper. “Then give me your name!!”

“Why would I give my name,” the stranger demanded bluntly, “to an idiot who clearly doesn’t want it?” Fai’s laughter froze, his eyes widening slightly as he actually _looked_ at the man beside him. The stranger turned away. “Tch. You really _are_ an idiot, aren’t you? A pretty obvious one too.”

Fai forced another smile, but this one felt brittle, its edges digging sharply into his cheeks. No-one had confronted him like this since – “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The stranger snorted, and then suddenly whirled about, stomping for the door.

Despite himself, Fai called out after him. “Your booking -”

“As I said,” the other man ground out, one hand on the knob, “you need it more than me.” And he went out, and had the cheek to slam the door behind him.

Fai’s hands tightened into fists of their own, his nails leaving crescent-shaped curves in his palms. At least _he_ wasn’t the one with anger issues.

Outside the room Youou Kurogane stalked off and away, scattering other gym-goers as he went, muttering under his breath about goddamned idiots.

* * *

“No, no, and _no again._ ”

Youou Kurogane had been born nearly a month prematurely, startling his parents as they’d been heading back to their native Japan after a long trip, catching them just inside the Soviet Union, four years before the Union fell. He’d been brought into the world on what was now Russian soil, rushed to a hospital, placed in a unit as his mother recuperated and his father went between the ward where his wife lay and the unit with his newborn baby son.

“Youou -”

“Don’t call me that, witch.”

They’d said he was a fighter as he struggled on, his parents delighted to see him growing, naming him Youou – ‘Hawk King’. Their precious baby boy, he’d been doted upon, loved and coddled the moment they’d been able to hold him, happily taking him home to Japan.

“Then -”

 _“No.”_

It had been his mother who’d first taken him skating, when he’d been old enough, pulling his father along with a laugh and letting them slip around the rink with her. Youou hadn’t felt like the most graceful of people at that time, slithering about and ending up on his behind more often than not, but he’d gained a liking for skating all the same, watching his mother twirl about before him, his father not as elegant, but still adequate to keep up her pace. They’d inspired him.

It was a pity they were both dead.

Yuuko put her hands on her hips, and eyed her recalcitrant tutee. “Do it or I’ll post pictures online of your plushie Googoo -”

 _“Ginryuu!”_

“- And you cuddling it whilst you’re asleep.” Yuuko didn’t even bother to include the correction. “They’re even cuter than the ones of you and your pillow.”

Kurogane reminded himself very strongly about that point that it was _terribly_ bad etiquette to attempt to strangle a woman. “Where do you _get_ these photographs?” He locked his door. Every night. He _checked._

“I have my sources,” his coach whispered, and tapped her nose with one finger in what was assumedly meant to signify her information was top-secret. Whatever. She looked like an idiot.

“I’m not doing it,” Kurogane told her, calling her bluff and folding his arms in utter defiance of Yuuko’s weird ways. What little she’d told him sounded insane enough, and wouldn’t be of use to him in any way.

Yuuko promptly began fiddling with her purse.

“No.” Kurogane insisted.

Yuuko rummaged around in her purse.

“ _No,”_ Kurogane said again.

Yuuko plucked out a set of photographs and began flipping through them herself, but Kurogane was determinedly Not Looking at her and her quiet chuckling was Not Affecting Him In The Slightest. It was a bluff, and he wasn’t going to fall for it.

Kurogane stiffened his resolve, and held firm.

Yuuko held up a picture of a sparkly silver dragon plushie with big eyes. Tomoyo had bought it. “I’m trying to think of a title for my post. ‘Skaters extraordinaire, Kurogane and Gurgle’ -”

 _“Ginryuu.”_

“ – sounds quite fetching, don’t you?” Again, Yuuko ignored him. “It’s not as catchy as one might wish for, but I feel it gets the point across adequately enough.”

Kurogane twitched. Strangling, maiming or otherwise slaughtering a female was against his principles. Generally. Unless they were trying to kill him. Could he get away with claiming he was acting in self-defence of his sanity? “This is blackmail.”

Yuuko _beamed._ “I prefer to think of it as an incentive to co-operative companionship.”

“It’s blackmail.” Yuuko fluttered his lashes at him, and Kurogane snorted and looked away. “Witch.”

She only smiled knowingly. “So you’ll come to meet him, Kurogane?”

It wasn’t as if the damn woman had given him much of a choice. Kurogane grumbled under his breath but nodded assent sharply, once, mentally removing himself from the squeal his coach let out and reminding himself he wouldn’t hit a member of the fairer sex. (But then, there was _nothing_ fair about Yuuko. The woman was an atrocious cheat.)

* * *

“Yuuko-san, this is a bad idea.”

Yuuko flapped her hand, leaning back in the plastic seat around the ice rink and putting her heeled feet up on the chair in front. Thankfully she was wearing trousers that day; else the action would have probably flashed anyone looking at them with a glorious view of the woman’s underwear. “Watanuki-kun, you’re such a pessimist. Think positively!”

Kimihiro Watanuki, seventeen years of age and very much used to the ways and wiles of Yuuko Ichihara, his parents’ distant relative on some side of the family or other no-one had ever quite specified to say and his current caretaker of the moment (his cousin and his cousin’s girlfriend’s family usually opened up their doors to him, but when Yuuko called you _answered,_ or your sanity was forfeit), _eyed_ the woman beside him with a deep distrust, completely ignoring the figures on the rink before them. “I’m _positive_ this is a bad idea.”  

Yuuko turned a lazy red gaze on him, downing about half of the flask she held in her hand. By the smell of it, she’d spiked the hot chocolate he’d given her. “Are you _certain_ of that, Watanuki?” When the youth didn’t answer she only smiled, cat-like, and stretched out a little more firmly in her seat. “Be a dear and check to see Kurogane hasn’t drowned himself down the toilet, would you, Watanuki?” They’d been waiting for him to come out for about ten minutes. “He’s been in there an awfully long time.”

Obligingly – and with distinct relief at being away from the mad woman -, Watanuki went off. About two minutes later he was back, and Yuuko raised one eyebrow in inquiry. “He says he’s not coming.”

“Whaaaaaaa’? We can’t have that!” Yuuko _pouted,_ swinging her legs around and down until her feet were flat on the floor again and pushing herself up into a standing position, one finger pointing dramatically towards the ceiling. “To the toilets!”

Watanuki gaped, and tried to ignore the people around them that had turned to stare. “Yuuko-san -”

It was far too late. Yuuko had already clacked off in her heels, all but _slamming_ open the door to the men’s toilets and striding inside like it was a perfectly everyday occurrence. “Kurogane, _yoo hoo~!”_

A few of the men that were inside automatically baulked at the sound of a woman’s voice, Kurogane, who had been leaning against a far wall, narrowing his eyes at his approaching coach.

“What the _hell_ do you think you’re doing?! This is the men’s toilets!”

“Is it?” Yuuko feigned surprise, glancing around herself (and completely ignoring all the men quickly shying out of the door), tapping one painted finger off of her chin in thought. “I guess the terrible taste in décor should have given it away.” She took up a spot beside the urinals, leaning on a divider with very little care for the man directly behind her hurriedly trying to finish his business and stuff his equipment back into his pants. “Don’t worry dear,” she spoke over her shoulder, the man’s ‘ _urk’_ clearly audible at having her undivided attention, “I’ve seen smaller.” He was out the door in about three seconds flat.

Kurogane growled. _“Witch -”_

“Now, now, Kurogane,” Yuuko chided, waving one finger at him in reproof, “that’s no way to speak to a lady.”

He glared back at her. “I’m not speaking to a lady.”

The door to the room was tentatively pushed open, and Watanuki poked his head inside. “Yuuko-san? Kurogane-san?”

“Watanuki-kun,” the female among them pouted melodramatically, “Kurogane is calling me names.” She said it like it was something new. “I’m going to need more of my special hot chocolate to ease the pain.”

Watanuki shook his head. “You already drank it all.”

“But _Watanuki_ - _kun_ -!”

“I can’t get anymore when we’re in an ice rink!”

“Then you shall have to make three times as much when we get home~!”

 _“That’s not fair!!”_

Kurogane snorted, and looked aside. “Life rarely is, kid.” Yuuko took that opportunity to lock her hands around one of his arms, and start dragging him towards the door. “ _Bitch,_ what d’you think you’re-?!”

“The future calls, Kurogane!” His coach only laughed at him.

Kurogane dug in his heels. _“No.”_ If it hadn’t meant losing his defence, he would’ve stamped his foot as well.

“One word – _Ginpoo.”_

“ _It’s_ Ginryuu, _dammit!!”_

“Ne, Watanuki, don’t you think Tomoyo-chan would love to know about our manly Kurogane hiding in the toilets~?”

“I was _not_ hiding.” Yuuko raised an amused eyebrow at her tutee, and he scowled at her. “I don’t need to tell you what I was doing – it’s _private.”_

Yuuko turned back to Watanuki. “Kurogane was _sulking.”_

“I was _not_ sulking!!” Kurogane put too much effort into yelling and too little attention into his position in the floor, Yuuko pulling him along a lot easier as she baited him. “Let _go_ of me, you twisted bat.”

“Very well.” Yuuko did so – she’d already pulled Kurogane to the edge of the rink, anyway, ignoring all the stares passers-by were giving them. She pointed out two people skating on the ice, watching as one of them stopped to wave at her when he saw her, waving back. “Those are the Fluorite twins, Kurogane.”

“Who-?” Kurogane followed the line of her gaze – and then froze. _“No.”_ He recognised that blond hair, even as the one who’d waved to Yuuko began moving over to someone identical to him, pulling on that person’s arm. “You want me to-? No. _No way in hell.”_

“That one’s Yuui,” Yuuko said helpfully, pointing to the first brother, “and that one’s Fai.” The second. “Fai’s the one I was talking about.”

Kurogane shook his head – an abrupt denial. “No.”

Yuuko fluttered her lashes at him, even as the twins started making their way over the ice, Yuui pulling Fai. “He’s a good skater.”

Kurogane didn’t care, and offered the first excuse that came to mind. “He’s male.”

“Very quick on his feet.”

“He’s male.”

“He’s light – he’d be good for lifts.”

“Witch,” Kurogane interrupted Yuuko’s song of praise, scowling, “he’s _male.”_

“Yes,” Yuuko beamed back, “but don’t you think he’d look pretty in a skirt?”

Kurogane glared.

* * *

Fai didn’t quite know how his brother had managed it, but he was back on the ice, Yuui a constant presence at his side, laughing, joking, smiling and outright _refusing_ to let his twin sink too deeply into his own thoughts. Yuui could be quite effective at badgering people when he chose – Fai supposed he was just lucky his twin was usually the quieter, more demure of the two of them. (Dealing with someone exactly like himself in terms of psyche and emotion would have killed him.) Yuui was different in the ways that mattered, in the ways Fai loved him for.

Yuui laid a hand on his arm as they were skating, welcoming, warm. “Fai, there are some people I want you to meet here.”

“Oh?” Fai smiled back, consenting to be pulled past the other skaters on the rink, his attention on his brother. “Who?” This reeked of a plan of some sort, especially as Yuui had been so insistent that they went skating that particular day, refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer in any of its smiling-faced, subtle forms. (Yuui was the _same_ in all the ways that mattered as well, though Fai didn’t like admitting that as much.)

Yuui only smiled again – they were both doing a lot of that – and gestured to a small group of three people waiting purposefully at the rink’s edge, a teenage boy, a tall, dark-haired woman and – _oh, hell no._

Fai attempted to dig his blades into the ice. “ _Yuui -”_

“Hm?” His twin looked inquiring.

Fai had a bad feeling – the red eyes glaring at him from over six metres away didn’t help much. “Whatever you’re planning – _no.”_ It was the growling, observant stranger from the gym.

Yuui kept pulling him along. “What makes you think I’m planning something?” Fai _looked_ at him. Yuui looked back at him, eyes softening in a way he knew Fai was susceptible to. “Just hear us out, Fai – please?”

“Yuui…” Yuui kept looking at him. Fai sighed, but gave in. “Alright.”

Yuui brightened; Fai tacked a smile on, and the two finished making their way over to the edge of the rink.

This was going to hurt.


	3. Chapter 3

_Novosibirsk, Russia, August 2009_

 

“Fai-san, would it be alright if I took my break now?”

“Hm?” Fai looked up from the till behind the counter at _The Cat’s Eye,_ where he was busy fetching a customer’s change. Sakura Kinomoto, Japanese, brunette, green-eyed and pretty in her waitress’ outfit looked patiently back, hands clasped in front of her in an innate expression of pleading. Fai’s gaze slid to the café entrance, where a familiar brown-haired boy was anxiously watching the two workers, and Fai smiled. Syaoran Li was as regular as clockwork, showing up as evening began to fall. His brother and twin wasn’t with him that day; maybe Syaoron had decided to give the lovebirds some time alone. “Of course, Sakura-chan. Do you want me to bring you and Syaoran-kun some chocolate cake over?”

Sakura blushed at being seen through so easily – she really was terribly predictable, and it was quite sweet. “I’d like that very much, Fai-san. Thank you.”

Fai waved her off, amused as the seventeen year-old immediately dived for the door, happily taking the hands of the boy who waited there and leading him to one of the empty tables. It was Yuui who had originally hired the girl on part-time, Sakura wanting to save up for her studies, but both twins were glad of her presence in the café. When Sakura smiled the room seemed to light up, and she blushed rather adorably when teased about her quite obvious crush on her good friend, Syaoran Li. (It was clear he liked her back and Fai had dropped numerous hints to both of them to just confess already, but both of the children had only blushed and stammered and looked anywhere and everywhere but at each other.) Shortly after they’d first met, upon discovering she had lived in Japan for a good portion of her life Fai had asked if he could call her ‘Sakura-chan’; Sakura had beamed, turned pink and nodded, and the two had been close ever since.

Fai took the customer – a young man, maybe in his twenties, who nodded agreeably when the waiter wished him a nice day – the change from the dessert they’d bought, before returning to the counter and putting two slices of cake and some hot chocolate (with extra cream and marshmallows) on a tray, taking the lot over to Sakura and her friend and laughing as they stuttered when he said it was on the house.

“Thank you, Mr. Fluorite.” Syaoran was the one to recover first, bowing his head slightly. He could be so serious sometimes, but he was decent, and intelligent, and clearly devoted to Sakura. Fai liked him.

“It’s no trouble at all, Syaoran-kun.” The boy smiled slightly at him – so serious! – and Fai smiled back, retreating first to the counter and then to the kitchen, where Yuui was busy mixing something or other in a bowl. “Syaoran-kun is here~.”

Yuui didn’t look up at him, frowning down at whatever he was doing. “Did you expect him not to be?” It was a well-accepted fact that the world was ending if Syaoran Li didn’t show up to see Sakura. Or something equally as dramatic, anyway. The last time he’d missed his appointment he’d been accompanying Syaoron to the hospital, the older boy having managed to get himself a concussion somehow when playing basketball at school.

“No,” Fai laughed, “but Yuui should come see them; they’re being terribly cute.” Obligingly, Yuui went to the kitchen door with his brother, and looked at the two chattering youths at their table. Fai hung off of his brother’s arm. “See? Aren’t they cute?”

Yuui only smiled at him. “I feel like a spy.”

Fai flapped a hand. “Spies have cooler music.”

“What music?” Yuui let his brother lean against him, used to the weight. “I don’t hear any music.”

“That’s because Yuui’s not a spy.” Fai grinned, and it seemed, for that short while, so wonderfully carefree. “If you _were_ a spy you’d have a dramatic instrumental going on in the background as you spied your way across the nations. With drums. And violins. And guitars.”

“Wouldn’t that prove rather troubling for my job?” Yuui brushed some of his twin’s fringe out of his eyes, amused. “The music would give away I was a spy every time I entered a room.”

“…It’d be magical music that only you could hear?”

“…I’d think I was going insane.”

“That’s because Yuui is so sensible.” Fai pecked a kiss to his brother’s cheek, pulling away and laughing again when the other raised an eyebrow at him. “My sensible little brother.”

“Do you want me to cook you something for when you get in tonight?” Fai paused, his smile freezing a little.

He looked plastic again. “It’s alright, I’ll make something myself.” The smile was brighter, brighter, nothing like the real laughter of before. “I don’t know what time I’ll be back.”

Yuui pressed on. “Then should I leave something out defrosting?”

“It’s alright; it’s fine,” _I’m a liar_ , “I’ll sort something out when I get in.”

“Very well.” Yuui tried to brush a hand through his brother’s hair again but Fai slid away from him, elusive as smoke through the fingers as he went to the counter, busying himself with nothing. The subject was closed.

* * *

“This is going to be a complete waste of time.”

“It’ll be mutually beneficial.”

“It’ll be about as ‘mutually beneficial’ as a mosquito.” Kurogane was distinctly unimpressed as he entered through the doors of the ice rink as night fell, Yuuko breezing along at his side – and she was breezing, her tutee grumbled inwardly, because she’d dumped her large, heavy bag in his hands and made him carry it for her. (Wasn’t this supposed to be Watanuki’s job?)  “At the end of the day one guy ends up irritated, and the other’s a smear on the window.”

“What a charming metaphor.” Once more Yuuko’s outfit was inappropriate for the ice, her dress long and complicated with a slit up the side to the top part of her thigh. Her heels, impossibly high, clicked on the floor as they strode along, the building mostly deserted apart from them. Private hire after-hours was such a blessing.

Kurogane muttered. “Whatever works.”

Yuuko pointed a red-painted fingernail at him. “ _You_ get a partner on-ice to keep you in shape until we find someone who’s more willing to stick with you permanently. _He_ gets to discover another side of ice-skating, one which will hopefully drag him out of the slump he’s in. I’d say this works.”

Kurogane glared. “He has absolutely _no_ training as a figure-skater.”

“And you’re not a psychiatrist,” Yuuko returned rather airily, just as they stepped into the main room, the rink exposed before them. It was empty save for a lone, blond figure circling it, the man out there seemingly lost in his own thoughts. “We’ll make do.”

Kurogane didn’t reply, going to the edge of the ice and leaning on the low wall that circled it, calling out to Fai there – for who else could it be? “ _Oi,_ idiot!” The man kept skating, showing no signs he’d heard. “ _Oi!”_ Kurogane didn’t like being ignored. He growled under his breath, and dumped Yuuko’s bag down on a nearby seat. “Tch.”

“Mr. Fluorite!” Yuuko raised her voice only slightly but Fai’s head shot up, his attention caught immediately. (Kurogane glared at his tutor. Yuuko ignored him.)

“Miss. Ichihara,” Fai was all smiles as he skated over, slowing to a halt on the other side of the wall and half-bowing, his golden hair falling about his face. “It’s a pleasure to see such a lovely face again.” Kurogane made a noise that was suspiciously close to a snort. “And Mr. Black over there too, of course.”

“It’s _Kurogane.”_

“It’s so wonderful to actually be around a young man who knows some _manners_ for a change,” Yuuko spoke lightly and Fai smiled charmingly, and Kurogane snorted and folded his arms across his chest. The witch had found a demon; his life was going to be _so_ much fun.

“…Your skates,” Kurogane spoke when Fai stepped off the ice, red eyes immediately narrowing in on the blades on the blond’s feet. “They’re the wrong type.” Fai’s skates were made of leather and moulded plastic, far too inflexible for figure skating’s fancier moves, and totally without the ice pick at the front of the blade that was a requirement to get up into professional toe jumps.

“You’re always so quick to pick fault, Kurogane,” Yuuko complained, taking Fai’s arm as he came closer and leading the man over to a nearby seat, ushering him down into it. “He just doesn’t play well with others.”

Kurogane growled at her. “We’re not here to ‘ _play.’”_

“ _And_ he’s a spoilsport,” Yuuko added, going to rifle through her bag. “But, no matter, I’ve solved today’s dilemma,” She pulled out another bag, much smaller than the other, and placed it on Fai’s lap. “I took the liberty of getting the measurements from your brother; these should fit you almost perfectly.”

Fai didn’t say anything to that – Kurogane watched, mildly intrigued by the way the blond idiot bowed his head for a few seconds, his eyes hidden, before sitting up straight again, carefully unzipping the bag Yuuko had given him and pulling out the pair of _figure_ skates within.

There was a pause.

“ _Hyuu~,”_ Fai made some… _noise_ with his mouth – the closest thing Kurogane could think to compare it to was a queer mix of an ‘ _oooh’_ and a whistle, mangled halfway into a monstrosity that made him twitch -, “aren’t _these_ lovely? Miss. Ichihara, you have impeccable taste.”

Yuuko preened as Kurogane examined the boots from his spot leaning on the nearest wall: - they were synthetic white leather, pliable, with a shine on the material and the sharp steel blade beneath that spoke of their newness. They’d be high standard if Yuuko had handled them – the woman was a pain, but she’d yet to give Kurogane anything that would let him break his ankle out on the ice. (Any other broken bones were apparently his own responsibility.) Tomoyo had always lauded her as well – Yuuko always seemed to draw the _best_ out of the manufacturers, and she always got boots that were just so _perfect_ for each individual skater.

Fai was handling them like he didn’t know what to do with them.

Kurogane stomped over to him – ‘so _ungraceful,’_ Yuuko sighed, and Kurogane magnanimously decided to ignore her -, crouching down, undoing one of the hockey skates Fai was wearing before the idiot realised what he was doing and all but _yanking_ it off.

 _“Ow!”_ Fai jerked back his other foot on instinct and swivelled away from Kurogane in his seat – if he hadn’t still been wearing a skate he probably would’ve kicked out with his feet, but honed instinct linked to the weight pulling around his ankles stopped him from doing that; skaters quickly learned to be careful of what were basically knives on their boots.

“Kurogane,” Yuuko chided, coming up behind her tutee and smacking him in the back of the head with a magazine she’d apparently pulled out of her bag – was that his _mangayan?!_  He was buying a set of locks and a _retina scan_ to secure his room, he _swore_ \- “don’t be a brute.”  

Kurogane growled again, somehow resisting the urge to rub the abused part of his skull and instead hefting Fai’s liberated, abandoned boot in his hands. It was much heavier than the skates he was acquainted with, its blade rounded on both ends – for better manoeuvrability? He poked it, curious despite himself, seeing the layer upon layer of padded reinforcement. “Has this got a metal mesh in it?”

“To stop other blades cutting into it.” Fai took back his stolen boot rather defensively, his smile having returned by then – but so much more brittle than before. His eyes were cold. “Hockey _is_ a contact – collision - sport.”

“Hn,” Kurogane sat back and waited while Fai carefully removed his other boot, carefully placing the two together on the floor before moving to pull on the pair Yuuko had given him.

“…These are higher than I’m used to for skating,” Fai confessed softly after he’d tied them, still seated, running his hands over the point where the leather met his trousers, over his ankles.

“They’re designed for jumps, mostly,” Kurogane explained shortly, tapping Fai’s ankle that was closest to him. “The boots cover the ankles to give better support for them, and the foot as a whole.” Fai moved his leg again – for someone who’d played a contact sport at a professional level, he seemed to be having a bit of a problem with contact. Wonderful. “Boots used t’be made higher, but they cut back on a skater’s flexibility.”

“Do they fit comfortably?” Yuuko examined Fai’s legs and posture with a critical eye as the man slowly stood upon his new skates for the first time – or maybe she was checking him out, who the hell knew? “I was going to pull you in for measurements a while back, but when Yuui mentioned you were the same size I got to use him instead.” And evidently ended up on a first-name basis with him while she’d been at it, too. “They should be stiff, since you haven’t broken them in yet, but snug.” Fai nodded, apparently agreeing that that was how it was, and she half-clapped her hands, squishing the _mangayan_ she was still holding in the process. (If there was a crease in any of the pages Kurogane was pouring all the alcohol in their shared abode down the sink as soon as they got back, and making the witch _watch.)_ “Good! We can discuss the payment for them later. _Now,”_ she collared Kurogane, who had risen up into a standing position as well, and hauled him over to his bag so he could put on his own skates. “Hurry up, and we can begin.”

Kurogane grumbled but did as he was bid; sitting down to remove his shoes and put his skates on. Fai stepped out onto the ice while he was waiting, doing a slow, lazy circle, looking down all the while. He stopped by colliding with the half-wall that bordered the entrance, Kurogane grimacing at the display better suited to a beginner but – for once – not saying a word.

“Mr. Black’s not the quickest at getting ready, is he?”

“It’s Kurogane, idiot.” Kurogane stood and stomped his way over to the blond, ignoring the disapproving looks he was getting from his tutor. “Say it right, or don’t say it at all.”

“Ku _ro…_ ” Fai rolled the ‘r’ of the name thoughtfully, leaning his arms on the half-wall and propping his chin up with his hands. “Ku _ro_ gane.”

The emphasis was wrong, but that was essentially it. Kurogane nodded curtly, and stood.

“Kurogane,” Fai said – and then sighed, glancing over at Yuuko. “How terribly un-cute. Does he get ‘Kuro’ for short?”

 _“No.”_ Kurogane cut in before the woman could even think about answering.

“Mm,” Fai slanted his gaze back at the figure skater, flicking it up the length of the other’s form in an easy, far-too-casual motion. His fringe wisped into his eyes, and his smile curled. Kurogane hated the look on sight. “I suppose there’s nothing ‘ _short’_ about our dear Kurogane at all, is there?”

Red seemed to rise straight up Kurogane’s neck and head for his ears, spreading in a glorious rush of colour across his cheeks. It was actually rather fascinating to watch, a curious mixture of embarrassment, frustration and rage visible in the hue staining his face, in the tense locking of his muscles, and the clench of his fists. There wasn’t a safe reply to Fai’s baiting – and so Kurogane ‘tch’d, stalking out onto the ice and – yet again – ignoring Yuuko’s speculative raised eyebrow.

Fai turned around to face him, leaning against the wall still, boneless and laughing. “Cat got your tongue, Ku _ro_ gane? Or maybe,” he pushed himself lazily upright, skating a little closer to the taller man, looping him in a small circle before halting in front of Kurogane with a grin, “maybe it’s just part of your _manly_ charm. Do they peg you as the silent type?”

“I don’t make a point of standing around waiting to be _pegged,”_ Kurogane said rather scathingly, and willed himself not to track the other’s movements. “I’ve got better things to do with my time.”

“I’m sure you do,” Fai replied demurely enough, but his smile was still that curling one that made Kurogane want to throttle him – it hung oddly around the blond’s face, and was laced with an innuendo that didn’t transmit across his body as a whole.

 _“Boys,”_ said Yuuko, breaking in-between the thick air gathering between the two men, and the gazes they’d somehow locked during their little conversation. Both glanced her way, apparently having temporarily forgotten she existed. “We have things to do today, you realise.”

Fai smiled again –

“I want you to hold hands.”

The smile dropped off, and Kurogane eyed his tutor. “What?”

“That’s it,” Yuuko clarified, seeing the disbelief on the faces of the two men before her.

“For an _hour?”_ They’d hired the place out for two and a half, but with all their talking beforehand and the inevitable time they’d take leaving again, it really only did equate to about an hour actually on the ice.

“For an hour,” Yuuko agreed, and primly took a seat at the edge of the rink, crossing her legs and looking at her student – well, they were both technically now her students, weren’t they? – expectantly. “Go on.” She might as well have added in the near-audible _‘shoo’._ “It’d probably be helpful if you two skated around a bit while you did so, to help Mr. Fluorite break in his new skates.”

“ _Witch_ …”

“Ah,” Fai lamented, and leeched onto Kurogane’s side, pulling a face at Yuuko of great distress and woe, “he’s making a grumpy face again.”

Kurogane immediately tried shaking him off of his arm. _“Get. Off.”_ He didn’t know what the idiot was playing as, especially since he’d moved so obviously away from all contact before, but Kurogane wanted no part of it.

“But I’m doing what I’m supposed to do~!” Fai chirped back. “Sort of.”

“Get off of me, or I’ll-”

 _“Kurogane,”_ Yuuko said, rather imperiously from her seat. He glared at her again. “We’ve discussed this.” Or, rather – Yuuko had talked, Kurogane had listened and tried to argue, and Yuuko had overrode him. Again. He would’ve gotten rid of her a long time ago after Tomoyo had left, but Tomoyo had this horrible habit of using _video-conferencing,_ and her disappointed face still struck a small chord of ‘oh crap’ in Kurogane that he’d never quite been able to explain away.

“… _Fine,”_ Kurogane forced out through gritted teeth – and then switched his glower down at Fai, who’d been slowly slithering his hand south down Kurogane’s spine to an area that would result in instant homicide for the idiot. “Try it and die.”

Fai batted blameless lashes at him, and swiftly slipped his hand from where it had been resting dangerously close to Kurogane’s ass, around the skater’s hip, and down to take hold of the other man’s hand. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He interlocked their fingers and held their joined hands up in the air for inspection, as if such a thing proved his total and complete innocence.

Kurogane snorted, _yanking_ on their joined hands and pulling his companion off-balance for an instant, Fai sliding towards him until Kurogane deliberately stepped out the way, the two of them side-by-side, with Kurogane already moving again, dragging Fai along with him.

Fai slithered for a few seconds before regaining his centre of balance, and for an instant his face flashed with quite obvious irritation. “You don’t make friends very easily, do you?”

Kurogane didn’t answer him, still inwardly fuming about having to baby-sit the infantile man beside him. An hour of doing nothing but skating around aimlessly holding hands… It was a trust exercise, a ‘getting-to-know-you’ exercise with a new partner to learn how the other person _flowed –_ but it was a basic exercise, usually took about ten minutes, and wasn’t usually with someone so _annoying._

“Kuu-roh-gah- _naaaay,”_ Fai sounded out, and deliberately pulled at the arm attached to the hand Kurogane was hauling along. He probably would’ve tried to execute a stop but Kurogane would’ve only continued dragging him along again, and Fai had no desire to stumble and land face-first on the hard ice. He’d forgotten his gloves that day, the ice was undoubtedly cold, and Kurogane’s blades looked horribly sharp. Fai was going _nowhere_ any closer to those things.

Kurogane continued to mostly ignore him, only tightening his grip a little and continuing on. (Yuuko wanted hand-holding for an hour, so the bitch was getting it.) Fai’s hands were larger than Tomoyo’s had been but were still smaller than his own, pale, with long, seemingly delicate fingers. There was a strength behind them though; they’d held a hockey stick tight for god knows how many years, pushed the man they belonged to through some actually quite impressive moves on the mat in the gym. It was a pity they were attached to someone with the mind of an idiot.

“Kurogane,” Fai said again, displeased at being ignored.

  _“What?”_ The other skater snapped, just as displeased at having his thinking interrupted.

Fai stared at him for a long few seconds, before blinking, the smile Kurogane was going to properly hate spreading across his lips once more. “You really _are_ so terribly grumpy, aren’t you, puppy-chan?”

 _“’Puppy-chan’?!”_ Kurogane stopped dead, but Fai kept going on a little more, hastily coming to a stop so he didn’t drag his partner over.

Not that Fai knew why he was bothering being so considerate – Kurogane was squeezing his hand to the point where it was actually beginning to hurt a little. “You’re Japanese-born, right?” He tried to pull his hand away, pleased when Kurogane dropped it as if the touch scalded him, and held it close to his side. “As is Yuuko-san. You were in the news quite a bit; they brought that up a lot.”

“‘Chan’ is a _female_ honorific.” Kurogane was fuming – but not about the honorific; no, not really that. That could easily be passed off as ignorance. No, what was bothering him was the first part of Fai’s address. “And the _‘puppy’?”_ He said the word as if it disgusted him – Fai made a mental note to make sure Kurogane steered clear of any of the little creatures for the foreseeable future.

“ _Puppy,”_ Fai repeated cheerfully, fascinated by the way it made Kurogane twitch. The man really _did_ have so many buttons to be played with, didn’t he? “Because you bark so much all the time, just like a little puppy-dog. You growl too, though it really does remain to be seen whether we can train you to play fetch -” Kurogane swiped for his head, and Fai ducked, laughing again. “ _Puppy~,”_ he crooned, and took off when Kurogane lunged forwards for him.

They spent the rest of the hour skating at high speeds about the rink, Kurogane attempting to murder Fai, and Fai keeping just out of range. When Kurogane finally corned Fai against one of the rink’s walls with a snarl Fai only ducked under the taller man’s arm, pointing at Yuuko waving for them lazily in the distance and skating merrily – once more – out of harm’s way, and over to the waiting woman, stepping off of the ice and giving her a brief, bright bow.

“Saved by the _belle~.”_

“You skate well,” Yuuko smiled at the compliment and shooed Fai down into a nearby seat, waiting while the blond removed his new skates and put them into their bag, packing up his hockey skates as well and pulling on his everyday shoes – tall black boots, that went all the way up to his thigh. “We’ve got plenty to work with.”

Kurogane, also off of the rink by that point in time, was actually distracted enough by them to forget his temper for a while, one skate off, one skate still on – he hadn’t known men actually _wore_ boots that high. “…I thought you said you weren’t used to shoes that high?”

“I said I wasn’t used to wearing shoes that high _for skating,”_ Fai replied, pulling on his coat. It was dark, like his boots and trousers, and made his skin and hair stand out all the more for the contrast. “Why – do you like them?”

Kurogane only looked at Yuuko. “Where do you _find_ these people?”

* * *

The house was wonderfully warm when Fai entered it, shaking his hair free of the light rain that had been misting down around him on his walk home from the skating rink. He could’ve quite easily have called a cab or pulled the hood of his coat up – but neither option had appealed to him very much, Fai preferring to let the rain patter off of his skin as he’d ambled along, face tilted up to the heavy clouds above. There were stars up there, somewhere out of sight, satellites, the sun and moon and other planets.

The television chattered away softly to itself in the main room, muted light spilling out from the ajar door into the unlit hallway. Yuui didn’t turn on many lights when he was home alone – it was Fai who left a string of burning bulbs behind him, a bright path for anyone to follow and find him. Yuui had teased him once or twice about still being afraid of the dark, but Fai had only laughed and brushed the comments off, and brought up all the times he’d pulled their brother out into the dark garden to look up at the night sky, back when they’d been small. It had always been _Yuui_ who’d shrieked at the slightest rustle of the bushes then, a small bird taking flight, the wind moving the leaves, and one or both of their parents had always come running, bursting out of the back door to see what was wrong –

 _We’re fine,_ Fai had always said, holding his brother’s hand, letting Yuui cuddle into him. Not their father, not their mother – they’d always cuddled each other. _See? We’re fine._

 _We’re fine,_ Yuui had echoed him, years later, to their unsmiling auntie, and her seeing, _knowing_ eyes. _Auntie, we’re fine._

“Yuui?” Fai called out quietly, entering the main room. The light came from the television and the reading lamp beside the sofa, a cheerful, golden glow. If Yuui had left it on he’d been using it – and so Fai was unsurprised when, going to the back of the sofa and looking down and over it at the cushions on the front, he saw his brother sprawled out there on his back, fast asleep. One finger kept place in the book tucked into the curve of one of Yuui’s arms, a mystery novel, written in French. Fai eased it from his brother’s grasp, careful to keep the page Yuui had marked, and slid the forgotten bookmark on the side-table in instead. He set the book down and reached to turn off the reading light as well, only to catch a sleepy blue gaze looking up at him from the sofa, patiently waiting to be noticed. “Ah,” Fai smiled ruefully – apologetically. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

“…I wasn’t expecting to fall asleep.” Yuui raised one hand to rub at his eyes, and Fai sank down to sit on the floor by the sofa’s side, grinning at his twin.

“Maybe you just have a crappy choice in literature.”

“First you wake me up, and now you insult me?” Yuui’s glare was half-hearted at best, his brother laughing and putting his arms on the cushions beside him, pillowing his head on them.

“It’s my duty as the elder sibling.” Yuui raised an eyebrow at him. “Nobody gets to pick on Yuui but _me.”_

“How kind of you.” Yuui’s tone was dry as he pushed himself up into a sitting position, cross-legged on the couch and looking down at his brother – and realising, for the first time, that Fai was wet. “You better not be dripping on the carpet.”

“And I love you too,” Fai teased, before wriggling around in his seating position until he could lift one of his legs up into the air, displaying his patterned socks for viewing. They were covered in silver snowflakes. “I left my boots at the door, see? It’s only a little bit of rain out there, anyway.” He dropped his foot again. “Talking of boots…Yuuko gave me the new figure skates today. The ones she used you to measure for.”

“Did they fit?”

“Like a glove.”

“Why would you wear gloves on your f-?”

 _“Yuui,”_ Fai said, cutting across the rhetorical question and meeting his brother’s gaze. “Please…” he trailed off a little when his twin looked back unwaveringly, but forced himself to go on. “Please, Yuui, don’t make any more deals like that with Yuuko again. Not about me.”

“…Alright.” Yuui sighed, but gave his agreement, seeing the serious expression on Fai’s face. “I promise.” And Fai smiled at that – as if his brother might’ve denied him -, and laid his head back down on his arms, letting the rain drip from his hair as it hung around his eyes. The television continued to murmur in the background, some nonsensical advert with too-bright colours and beaming faces, a reality far, far removed from the one the brothers resided in.


	4. Chapter 4

_Novosibirsk, Russia, August 2009_

 

 _“Half an hour?!”_

Sakura _eek_ ed as Fai suddenly burst through the door leading from _The Cat’s Eye_ kitchen into the main part of the café, clipping the tray of used cutlery she was carrying back through to the dishwasher. “Fai-san!” The plates on the tray wobbled dangerously – but steadied, when Fai saw what he’d done and caught the back of Sakura’s waist with one hand, helping her keep her balance.

“Ah, Sakura-chan -” Fai still seemed distracted as he manoeuvred himself around the girl, one hand still on her waist, the other pushing what looked like his mobile phone into the back pocket of his trousers. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s nothing -”

 _“Yuui!”_ Fai suddenly leapt forwards when the front door of the café entrance jingled open and his brother came inside, bags of shopping on his arms, Yuui abruptly assaulted by flying limbs and a monkey-hold around his neck. A few of the customers stared at the display – the regulars only continued sipping at their drinks with the occasional smile at the two twins at the door, a few nods of recognition, a little girl brought in for an after-school treat by her mother waving a forkful of cake.

“Fai,” Yuui replied evenly in greeting, shifting his grip on his bags slightly so he could both half-return his brother’s embrace with affection and disentangle Fai from around his neck somewhat – Yuui appreciated breathing; truly, he did. “What-?”

“Excuse me, Mr. Fluorite?” There was a brown head half-poked around the front door, interrupting Yuui’s question. “You’re blocking the entrance.”

“Right -” Yuui shoved his bags into Fai’s arms and neatly pushed his brother back a few steps out of the way, Fai taking the items, blinking past his shoulder and seeing the Li twins coming in, also laden down with shopping. “I met them on the way in,” Yuui cheerfully explained. “And they were kind enough to offer to help me bring the things from the car.” It explained why Yuui hadn’t come in through the private entrance then, not wanting to trek the two teenagers through his precious kitchen.

“Where would you like these?” Syaoran raised the two bags in his hands for viewing, Syaoron waiting behind him for an answer as well. 

“Just by the counter, thank you -”

“Yuui,” Fai tugged on his brother’s sleeve like a child half his age (and maybe half again), his arms still full of bags. He handed them off on a startled Syaoran who’d only just relieved himself of his own load, the youth having come up beside the two siblings to see if he could offer any more assistance. (Syaoran accepted them with vague bewilderment – Fai hadn’t even looked at him.) “Yuui, I need to go.”

“Go where?” Yuui was still heavily distracted, sliding off his coat and slinging it over one of his arms.

“The gym – Yuuko called an-”

There was another startled _squeak_ from beside the counter – Sakura again, serving the customers still, this time armed with a tray of pastries, two china cups and a small silver teapot, all of it and the girl falling forwards after getting her foot tangled up in a handle of one of the bags that had been so recently deposited on the floor.

Syaoron caught her, darting forward before anyone else really had time to process the fact Sakura was _falling,_ one arm somehow catching the tray, the other holding Sakura, and the café burst into a timely round of appreciative applause as somehow nothing ended up on the floor – aside from a packet of sugar and a teaspoon, but those weren’t breakable.

Sakura was blushing madly as Syaoron set her back on her feet, clutching the tray she’d been carrying as close to her chest as she dared without upsetting everything on it again. “I’m so sorry!” Sakura wasn’t clumsy – it just apparently wasn’t her day. Syaoron took a few minutes to remind her of the fact, Syaoran coming over to join in – but the younger boy only made Sakura’s blush darken further with his hasty assurances that it wasn’t her fault, that Sakura was a _wonderful_ waitress _, really_ , and Syaoron slid away with a laugh after picking up the dropped teaspoon and sugar packet and leaving them on the counter.

Yuui smiled, seeing Sakura wasn’t hurt and nothing was broken. “…We should rename this place _Pandemonium.”_

“I need to go,” Fai reminded him. “ _Gone,_ in fact.” He was already edging for the door.

“You’re working,” Yuui protested, perplexed, apparently having missed the comment his brother had given him before Sakura had tripped. “ _Fai -”_

“Yuuko phoned.” Fai explained, facing his brother, but opening the door with his hand behind his back. “I’ve -” he glanced at his watch, “nineteen minutes to get to the gym.”

“But it’s at least twenty-five if you’re walking -”

 _“Exactly.”_

“Fai -” Fai was out of the door, and running down the pavement. Yuui went to the entrance and called after him, ignoring the looks passers-by gave him. “What about your coat?!”

 _“Didn’t bring one!”_ Fai yelled back over his shoulder, and then sped up, manoeuvring his way through the people around him.

Yuui sighed, seeing the discussion – argument? Debate? – was lost, and went back inside the café. “Syaoron, Syaoran…” he spoke to the two boys, seeing they’d taken a seat at one of the tables, Sakura already taking their order. They both glanced up. “Would you two like a job for the evening?”

* * *

Kurogane was waiting when Fai finally got to the gym, leaning against a wall inside near the entrance with his arms folded across his chest, having already changed into a dark set of track suit bottoms and a t-shirt. A group of three teenage girls lingering in the foyer with their bags over their shoulders kept glancing over at the skater and giggling amongst themselves – Kurogane was, at first glance, staunchly ignoring them, but with a closer glance one could see that his right eye had developed a wonderful and most peculiar _twitch_ that kept going off in time with each giggle.

“You’re late.” Black brows drew down into an expression of acute disgruntlement when Fai approached the scowling Kurogane, an expression that was all-too-quickly becoming quite familiar to the blond. Kurogane slanted his gaze down at the other’s side, noting immediately the lack of any sort of bag with clothes to change into being present there. “Where’s your stuff?”

“I was at work.” Fai himself was less than chipper – he’d run a good portion of the way, his cheeks pink from the breeze and the sun, his hair windblown. He smoothed a hand back through it and smiled at the girls across from them, ignoring Kurogane’s echoing snort. “I didn’t have _time_ to pick up my stuff.”

“You mean you actually _do_ work?” Kurogane eyed him – his disbelief was palpable.

“I actually do work,” Fai replied calmly, his smile fixed perfectly in place, and didn’t offer any more information. The girls had taken to studying him just as avidly as Kurogane, clearly liking the figure he cut in _The Cat’s Eye_ uniform. “So something more than a half-hour warning before our next session – _wherever_ it is – would be appreciated.”

“That has nothing t’do with me,” Kurogane said, pushing himself off the wall and unfolding his arms – they were strong arms, lined with muscle, an even tan all around. Did he work out in the sun without his shirt on or something? “See the witch with your complaints. Now, _shift_ ; you’ve held us up enough already.”

“By less than five minutes,” Fai protested as Kurogane began walking away, heading for one of the private-hire rooms again, and he slowly trailed after him. It had better not be the one they’d met in – that place was probably bad luck.

“Six,” Kurogane corrected him shortly, and Fai bristled. 

“Clock-watching must be one of your many talents.”

“Generally, it’s called _being punctual_.”

“Generally,” Fai mimicked under his breath, “it’s called being anally-retentive.”

Kurogane glared at him, apparently having heard the comment, but was cut short of a retort by the door in front of them suddenly bursting open so forcefully it swung all the way around on its hinges and smacked into the exterior wall.

 _“There_ you are!” Yuuko. There was nobody else who it could possibly be – not that either of the two men left staring at the dramatically-posed woman in the doorway in front of them were in much doubt about her identity, anyway. It was Yuuko, Yuuko, _Yuuko –_ and there weren’t really any other words that were needed to follow up that. She put her hands on her hips, and looked generally disapproving. “We thought you weren’t coming.”

“Yuuko-san,” there was a voice from behind Yuuko, a harassed teenager looking around the woman. He looked like the boy – _was_ the boy – that had been hovering around Yuuko on that day at the ice-rink, when Yuui had put forward the whole crazy idea, “you only texted him half an hour ago. If you want people here on time you should really give them more warning -”

 _“No matter!”_ Yuuko reached one hand out and latched onto Fai’s wrist, dragging the man into the practice room with her – the boy with her quickly shifted out of the way with the verbal equivalent of a flailing squawk, immediately launching into a rant against Yuuko’s manners. Yuuko ignored him. “We’ll begin right away. Well,” she paused, suddenly seeing the sleeve of the white shirt beneath her hand, the black waistcoat Fai was still wearing, “as soon as you’re changed. _Kurogane,”_ she turned to sigh at the other man, Kurogane having followed them in with an eye-roll, “why didn’t you take him to get changed before bringing him here?”

“He didn’t bring clothes to change into.” Kurogane took a seat against the wall, largely uncaring – he seemed to have a thing for skulking against walls.

The flailing kid started up again. “I _told_ you -”

Yuuko only smiled. “We’ll just send Watanuki to go pick your things up.”

 _“What?!”_

“…Ah.” Fai smiled politely, his wrist still in Yuuko’s possession, one hand hanging rather limply, useless. “If it’s alright by you, I’d rather not.” Yuuko raised an eyebrow at him, but silently waited for him to go on. “My house is some way from here – it doesn’t seem terribly fair to send poor Watanuki all that way just to fetch a change of clothing. By the time he got back here we’d probably already be done and ready to go.”

Yuuko continued to look at him, before slowly nodding at head to his outfit. “Can you exercise in those?”

“As long as you’re not planning on our activities being incredibly complicated, I’m sure doing so just this once won’t be a problem.” Fai deliberately softened his expression, his eyes dropping shut against Yuuko’s gaze and his smile turning intentionally disarming. “I’ll take off my waistcoat and roll up my sleeves, and ditch my shoes at the side.”

“Very well.” Yuuko released him and Fai did exactly as he’d said, pulling off his tie, waistcoat, shoes and socks, putting all but the shoes neatly on a chair at the side of the room. The floor was cool against his bare feet. As he was rolling up his sleeves he was a little surprised to have a can of deodorant suddenly thrust at him – thankfully, on his right side, so he saw it coming and was able to shift before it jabbed him in the arm.

Fai’s gaze flicked up – Kurogane was the one responsible for the abrupt assault, the other man looking at Fai rather impatiently as the blond did nothing but stare at the can. Fai actually paused in rolling his sleeves, lips quirking upwards. “…Is this a hint that I need to take more baths?”

Kurogane only glared at him – the seemingly perpetual expression. “Do you want the damn thing or not?” When Fai only continued to regard him with his mildly amused expression Kurogane shoved the deodorant into the smaller man’s hands with a growl, stalking off to do his stretches on the mat that was the furthest one away from Fai. Oh, he sulked well.

Fai followed soon after. He used another mat, absorbing himself in his task. Kurogane was doing the same and Yuuko appeared to be giving Watanuki a mental shopping list, the youth loudly complaining about the absurdity of half the items she was asking him to fetch. Despite his protests – most of which were rather feeble anyway – Watanuki went, and Yuuko busied herself with unzipping a gloriously _shiny_ miniature stereo from her bag, plugging it in at the nearest socket and flicking the radio on. Loud, painfully obnoxious club music immediately blared out –

 _“Witch!”_

Yuuko changed the channel, murmuring what sounded suspiciously like ‘spoilsport’ under her breath. A classical piece came on instead, mid-crescendo, and Kurogane went back to finishing off his stretches. Seated on his mat, Fai smiled mostly to himself, and curved over his leg, reaching for one foot with his hands, holding on to the tip for ten seconds before releasing and stretching for his other foot. It was _The Blue Danube_ that was playing, a familiar twinkling he hadn’t heard in _years._ It had been one of the ones Yuui had had difficulty with, back when they’d been younger, and he’d practiced the stupid tune again and again on their aunt’s piano until both of them had been hearing it in their _dreams._

“You need to get accustomed to working with music in the background,” Yuuko explained when Fai finally pushed himself back up onto his feet, one hand on her hip and the other waving lazily in the air, as if to demonstrate her point.

Kurogane came up behind Fai, and grumbled. “Just don’t let her pick the music.”

“Now,” Yuuko ignored him – her selective hearing was truly a sight to behold -, and pointed one finger directly at Fai, “I want you to fall.”

Fai blinked at her. “You want me to do what?” His usual manners got lost to confusion.

“Fall,” the coach told him eloquently, “backwards. With your eyes closed, and your arms folded across your chest.”

Fai looked at her appraisingly. “I’d hit the ground.”

“Kurogane will catch you.” Fai didn’t even need to open his mouth to convey what he thought of _that_ idea – apparently the look on his face said everything. “He hasn’t dropped anyone yet.”

“But -” Yuuko continued to look at him, and Fai couldn’t think of an adequate argument as to why he couldn’t, shouldn’t or _wouldn’t_ do as she was telling him, other than that he just really, _really_ didn’t want to. “Alright.”

Fai tried not to swallow when Kurogane stepped closer to him again, the heat from the other man’s body prickling the hairs down the back of his neck, consciousness of another body too close trickling down his spine. On the one hand, Kurogane being really close was a good thing – it meant less distance to fall, a lower likelihood of ever hitting the floor -, but on the _other_ –

“What’s the point of this exercise?” Fai asked, skittish, suddenly wanting very, _very_ much to bolt. The question was asked at Yuuko, but his eyes kept flickering to the door. A large hand closed around his arm, and Fai tried not to jump.

Kurogane answered, a rumble at his back and overhead. “If you don’t trust me to catch you doing something as simple as this, how the hell d’you think you’re going to be able to trust me to be the only thing keeping you from whacking your head off the ice during a spin?” Fai stiffened but Kurogane continued on regardless, sliding his grip down the paler man’s wrist, pulling it up onto his opposite shoulder and holding it there. “I’ll catch you.” And then he let go, and stepped back.

 _The Blue Danube_ came to an end. There was a silence before anything new started up again, the gentle tap of a conductor’s baton from the radio and the rush of blood through Fai’s own ears. Kurogane was still behind him, Yuuko was still looking at him, and he suddenly felt horribly, terribly sick, staring at nothing and feeling bile at the back of his throat. The room’s walls were a horrible white, cold and unfriendly, and the gleam of metal fittings on them could’ve easily been the light glancing off of a blade, sharp skates cutting over the ice –

“Mr. Fluorite.” Yuuko’s voice, and Fai came away from staring at the wall, back to the red of her knowing gaze. She was wearing purple lipstick that day, and there was another classical waltz playing, sweetly lilting, and he wanted to turn the radio off.

 _Mon amour, je t'ai vu_

 _Au beau milieu d'un rêve -_

Tchaikovsky’s waltz from _The Sleeping Beauty –_ Yuui had played it, _Disney_ had used it, and his mother had sung the song as she’d worked around the house such a long, long time ago. (But Yuui had lost the music sheets in the move, auntie didn’t sing, and they’d both thought themselves far too old for _Disney_ at that point, anyway.)

“Sorry,” Fai apologised. And smiled. “I was somewhere else.” And he raised his other hand so his arms were crossed across his chest, fingers pressing into his own shoulders. His stomach felt like it was somewhere about his ankles.

Fai fell – or tried to, anyway. Something caught as he rocked back on his heels, an internal instinct to stop his decent, and he tried to steady himself again with one foot – but he was too far into his backward arc already and stumbled, awkward, losing his straight posture as his knees buckled beneath him. Kurogane, true to his word, reached out to catch him, but it was a clumsy fall, and Fai continued his descent even though Kurogane’s hands grabbed his arms, digging in harder than they usually would’ve done. Fai’s behind and the base of his spine hit the ground, and his head whacked rather painfully off of Kurogane’s thigh and hip. (What the hell was the man _made_ of?! _Steel_?!)

 _“Oww…”_ Fai complained as Kurogane hauled him up again – mat or not, he was going to _hurt -,_ rubbing the small of his back and shooting a dark look at Kurogane from under his lashes. “Puppy, you make a _horrible_ catcher.”

“Even an _idiot_ can fall over properly,” Kurogane snapped back at him, dropping his hands from Fai like the blond had the plague.

“Aw, is Kuro-kuro saying I’m indescribable?”

“That’s _one_ way of – _what the hell did you just call me?!”_

“Kuro-kuro! Because you said you didn’t get ‘Kuro’ I thought I’d double it up so it was acceptable.”

“ _You-!”_

Fai only laughed at Kurogane’s temper and the two bickered for a while – and then Yuuko called them to attention, and made them try the falling exercise again. And again. And _again._ Fai fell every time – he hadn’t even known there were so many ways to fall ‘wrong’ off of the ice.

After the seventh attempt – and all the arguing that went with it – Watanuki returned, laden down with bags, and Yuuko called a break. They drank some of the water Watanuki had brought – citrus flavour for the boy himself, peach for Fai, plain for Kurogane and they didn’t even think Yuuko was drinking _water_ (although the contents of her bottle were relatively clear they certainly didn’t smell like anything that could be brought near minors) – and relaxed, and then Yuuko had Fai and Kurogane work through their stretches again, this time _together._ Fai twitched all the time and Kurogane grumbled, and when Fai started making innuendo-laced remarks Kurogane started swearing –

When their time in the gym was up, all of them were thankful for it. 

* * *

Nearly all the lights were on in the house when Yuui finally got home that night – in the hallway, the kitchen, living-room, study and Fai’s room. Fai himself, however, was in none of them, but the pile of clothes dumped unceremoniously on the floor of his brother’s room gave Yuui some clue as to where Fai could be; he got his answer for certain when he knocked on the bathroom door and got a muffled, weary ‘what?’ from within.

Yuui pressed his forehead against the wood. “I’m back.”

“I guessed.” The bathroom’s acoustics gave Fai’s voice a hollow ring, a very brief echo that chased after the end of his words. “Robbers don’t knock.” There was the sound of shifting, and water splashing. “Welcome home.”

Yuui smiled. “You’re taking a bath?”

“You need the toilet?” More splashing.

“No, it’s alright.” The splashing quietened down again. “Just don’t forget to wash behind your ears.” Something _thumped_ off the other side of the bathroom door – it made a quietly mournful _quuuuaaaack_ when it did so, so Yuui thought it was safe to bet that it was very likely the rubber duck that Fai had bought to decorate the bottom of the bathtub (and be used as an occasional projectile). He laughed, Fai making a petulant ‘ _Yuuuuui’_ from the tub. “Enjoy your bath.”

Yuui went back downstairs to the study, flicking off the house lights as he went, and sat there for a while working over _The Cat’s Eye_ ’s finances, before eventually deciding to stop for the night about an hour later. He went to his room to get changed into more comfortable clothing and frowned slightly as he passed the bathroom again – the door was still shut, and Fai wasn’t in his room. He didn’t knock again though, heading for the kitchen as soon as he’d changed to put a frozen pizza into the oven, his stomach rumbling, and ate a large portion of it when it was cooked in front of the television in the living-room, legs tucked up beneath him on the couch. What he didn’t eat he put back in the oven – although turned off, the heat left over from cooking would keep the pizza warm for a while.

Fai came downstairs later – _much_ later – with wet hair and bare feet, dressed in navy-blue pyjama pants and an old t-shirt that had _Clones Are People Two_ emblazoned across the front. He took a seat on the opposite end of the couch to Yuui and used the towel hanging around his neck to dry his hair, leaving a tousled mess of dark gold fluff around his face. After a while he padded through to the kitchen to grab the leftover pizza, hanging his towel over a radiator as he went, and returned once he’d done with clean hands, taking the spot beside his brother and dropping his head on Yuui’s shoulder. Neither of them said anything, content to watch the overdramatic explosions of the film onscreen, and Yuui wrapped his arm around his twin, letting his fingers move soothingly through the still-damp strands of Fai’s hair.

When Yuui woke up later, having dropped off shortly after the film ended, he was perfectly alone in the living room. The lights had all been switched off, the television too, and the blanket from the cupboard had been brought out and draped over him. The house was quiet so Yuui went to bed, leaving the blanket to be put away again in the morning proper.

* * *

They went back to train at the ice-rink again. Yuuko had hired it after-hours once more, but this time she refused to let either Fai or Kurogane out on the ice until they’d tried the falling exercise again – the result was both men thoroughly irritated with one another before they’d even got their skates on, both of them bruised, and Yuuko pronouncing them both unsatisfactory before disappearing to put the CD she’d brought with her in the rink’s sound system.

Fai put his white skates on, stepping onto the rink and warming up by lapping it a few times. Kurogane put his own skates on – but sat in a chair by the rink entrance, and waited for Yuuko to come back. The music started up coming from the speakers, an instrumental piece he didn’t recognise, and Yuuko came clicking back in her heels, apparently totally unsurprised to see Kurogane waiting there for her. She walked past him, heading for her bag and rifling around it, before withdrawing a packet of _Galaxy Minstrels,_ and promptly opening them up to eat two.

Kurogane eyed her, frustrated. “He _still_ won’t fall properly.”

“Then,” Yuuko told him simply, coming back over to take a seat beside her tutee and popping another _minstrel_ into her mouth, “you’ll have to find some other way to get him to trust you, since you being your usual charming self doesn’t seem to be working.”

“Like _what?”_

Yuuko shrugged, a fluid motion. “You could always try asking him out on a date.” Kurogane glared at her. “No? And here I thought he was exactly your type.”

“How the _hell_ would you know what my ‘type’ is, witch?”

 _“Well -”_

“Miss. Ichihara?” Fai’s voice called out to them, breaking gently into the conversation. While Yuuko and Kurogane had been talking he’d finished another lap of the rink, coming to a halt by the entrance and looking over at the both of them, gloved hands resting uncertainly on the half-wall.

“One moment, Mr. Fluorite.” Yuuko smiled over at him, before neatly closing the plastic packet of her sweets and putting them down, finishing her conversation with the man beside her. “It doesn’t take much common sense, Kurogane, to know people are much more likely to trust those they actually know a little about.” She stood, her long skirt rustling with the movement, and raised her voice, so that both of her companions could hear her. “You’re going to practice using the toe-pick today, Mr. Fluorite – for changing your speed, direction and coming to a stop altogether. Kurogane’s going to be the one advising you more personally today – I can’t stay for very long, so I’ll leave you in his _capable_ hands.”

“You’ll _what?”_ Kurogane was aghast – Yuuko had never mentioned any plans for leaving early to _him._

“Leave,” Yuuko said with a satisfied smile, and looked over the man’s shoulder to the clock hanging on the wall. “In about twelve minutes. I have some things I need to pick up.”

“But you always make the _kid_ pick up all your stuff!”

Yuuko flapped her hand. “Even Watanuki-kun has his days off, Kurogane.”

Kurogane only eyed her distrustfully. “Since _when?”_ Yuuko never gave the kid a break – _never._

“Since always!” Yuuko huffed out a breath. “Really, you make me sound like a slave-driver.” Kurogane opened his mouth to protest, and Yuuko smoothly kicked his ankle. Whatever the skater might have said was lost in his yelp of pain. “Pick up the CD from the office before you leave here, alright?”

“I’ll be sure to remind him.” Fai was grinning, and Kurogane shot him a dark look for his amusement.

They practiced, as Yuuko had bid them, using the toe-pick – instinctively, when asked to stop out on the ice, Fai used the hockey or t-stop, but Yuuko shook her head and Kurogane made him do the same thing again and again and _again_ until he was eventually pushing the tip of his skates down, getting used to the new device at the front of his blade. Yuuko left, and they practised for a long while before Kurogane moved back to let Fai skate normally – the rink suddenly seemed so much emptier without Yuuko there as an audience, just Kurogane and Fai, the scrap of a man, who skated closer after a little while, Kurogane having drawn to a standstill on the ice with a brooding expression on his face. Fai actually seemed relatively concerned –

And then he opened his mouth. “If Kuro-pon scowls like that long enough,” Fai teased, his hands behind his back, “his face will freeze that way.”

Kurogane just stared at him with a kind of blank disbelief, dragged rather rudely from his thoughts. _“What_ did you just call me?”

“Kuro-pon!” Fai beamed at him. Kurogane wanted to throttle him instantly. “I did some research on honorifics after our last session together since Kuro-myu was so grumpy when I used ‘chan’ – but most of them were terribly boring, so I made up some of my own.”

 _“Don’t.”_

“Kuro-kun’s just jealous because I came up with such wonderful names all by myself.” The time of relative peace – where Fai had actually acted like a semi- _sane_ individual – was apparently at an end. Kurogane growled, and saw the answering gleam of mischief in Fai’s eyes – the idiot was doing this just to piss him off. (He wasn’t quite sure _why,_ though – hadn’t they actually been getting along?) “If you like, you can borrow some of them for when you talk to me~.”

 _“No.”_

“Ahhh,” Fai pouted – another action calculated to annoy, “Kuro-chii really _is_ a spoilsport.”

“It’s _Kurogane.”_ Kurogane growled, but Fai only laughed at him. The CD’s music continued to play in the background, and Kurogane got an idea. “Give me your hands.”

Fai stopped laughing. “…What?”

“Your hands,” Kurogane held one of his own out but Fai took a step back on his flats away from the limb, apparently wary. “Give them to me.”

“Kuro-lu,” Fai’s hands were still firmly behind his back; he was acting like a three year-old. “I’m not really into palm-reading or anything like that -”

“We already know your lifeline’s stupidly short.” Kurogane made a grab for the other man before Fai could dive away again, holding on to the top of blond’s arms. Fai seemed to have a death-wish. 

He wasn’t smiling at all. “Patience isn’t one of Kuro-fo’s many virtues, is it.”

“Most of the time you’re too busy trying it,” Kurogane retorted, “so it’s hard to tell.” Fai’s mouth quirked, but his lowered gaze seemed resigned. Yet again he presented a face full of contradictions, but slowly brought his hands forward and presented them between their two bodies, palms up to the ceiling. Kurogane reached down and took them. “…Do you lie to your brother like that?”

Fai’s head snapped up. “I would _never_ lie to Yuui!” He tried to tug his hands back, but Kurogane didn’t let go.

“I’m not,” said Kurogane simply, “just talking about the lies that come out of your mouth.”

“I don’t _lie,”_ Fai replied, his lips pressed together in a thin line. Apparently he had to be startled or annoyed to drop the idiot act (how much was an act though, was anyone’s guest).

Kurogane just snorted at him and began slowly moving backwards, only stepping at first, lightly pulling Fai with him. Fai went with him automatically at first, still clearly displeased, but when Kurogane began to pick up speed, still holding both of Fai’s hands, the ex-hockey player started to look confused. Kurogane drew his hands apart a little further, spreading Fai’s as a result as well – but he didn’t say anything, and Fai didn’t ask anything, not until they’d somehow managed to get around three-quarters of the rink.

 _Then_ came the question, coupled with a mildly bemused smile edging onto Fai’s face. “What are we doing?” 

“Skating,” Kurogane told him, “together.”

“Well, yes, Kuro-yip, I can _see_ that -” Kurogane resisted the urge to snap about the nickname and instead let go of Fai’s left hand, placing his right hand on the idiot’s waist. Fai stiffened, and shot hasty eyes down at the new point of contact between them, before glancing back up at Kurogane. They were still moving, a steady speed. “What are _you_ doing?”

“Skating,” Kurogane replied, still maddeningly unspecific. He dropped Fai’s other hand, picking up the blond’s left hand again with his own left, keeping his right hand on the other’s waist. “Turn.”

Fai looked at him as if he were mad. “I’d be skating backwards.”

“That’s the point.” Fai frowned. “Can’t you do it?”

Kurogane leaned into a curve the moment he felt his companion _shift,_ Fai twisting himself around so his back was facing Kurogane’s chest, Kurogane still holding his left hand and both of them keeping their backward momentum. After a few more metres Kurogane dropped that hand to place his own left opposite his right on Fai’s waist. “From here I could raise you into a number of lifts – and if we moved out in the middle of the ice it would be the work of seconds to go into a spiral.”

Fai didn’t turn his head to look back at him. “You wouldn’t, though.”

“No,” Kurogane agreed, and once more took Fai’s left hand from behind. “Turn, and then slowly stop.” Fai did as he was told without a comment or requiring baiting – wonders would never cease – and Kurogane dug in his own blades, both of them gradually slowing until they were at a standstill. “I wouldn’t.” He nodded to the clock on the wall. “We need to leave.”

Fai dropped his hand and took a step back immediately.

They moved off the ice together and took off their skates, sliding on the blade-guards and putting the skates away in their bags. Fai was wearing his stupid boots again, black on the tight black of his trousers. The only real purpose for boots that high seemed to be to attract attention to the slim legs beneath – but Fai covered up the most of his choice of footwear with a long coat, unbuttoned (and untied – the thing had far too many straps and ties and little fiddly complicated bits on it) but coming down to just below his knees. It fit his chest closely, but flared out past his hips in a swirl of dark cloth.

Kurogane eyed the ensemble, and pulled on his own – thin – jacket. “You wear that during the day?” How didn’t the idiot melt?

Fai picked up the bag with his skates in it, and eyed Kurogane back. “You’re going out in that tonight?” Late summer or not, it was night, and they were in _Siberia_ _._ Kurogane scowled at him, but Fai ignored the look and straightened out his collar. “Kuro-pu, don’t forget to pick up your CD.”

 _“Kurogane,”_ his companion corrected waspishly, stalking towards the exit. He looked for some signs pointing towards the office where the sound controls would be kept as he went – but saw nothing but signs for the rink, the rink’s café, the reception, exit and toilets. “Where the hell’s the soundboard in this damn place, anyway?”

“This way.” Fai, keeping pace with Kurogane’s longer stride, suddenly veered off down a side-corridor, causing Kurogane to stop in his tracks and hastily alter his own direction to follow. The rink had a labyrinth of corridors and storage rooms and nonsense around it, the sound system tucked away in a tiny office up a long flight of stairs (how Yuuko had got up them in heels would forever remain a mystery), large windows looking down on the ice. Fai went inside, and went straight to a heap of complicated looking machinery that Kurogane, coming in after him, could only look at blankly. “Should I take your CD out for you, too? Only Kuro-do looks very much like a ‘hit it until it works’ kind of person to me, and the bill for you wrecking this equipment would be rather high.”

Kurogane growled at Fai – but noticeably didn’t complain when Fai pushed a button and withdrew his CD, popping it into the case Yuuko had left on the top. (When Fai handed the then-cased CD over to him, however, he _did_ have a few choice words to say – ‘for the puppy’ was scrawled over the front in permanent ink, and Yuuko’s handwriting was easily recognisable. Fai teased him all the way out of the rink – running, as the CCTV cameras would later pick out, as Kurogane had apparently grabbed a mop from a storage cupboard and was wielding it like some sort of lethal sword. (The rink later charged Yuuko for the missing item – Yuuko took revenge by hiding all of her tutee’s _mangayan_ for a fortnight.))

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- ‘Why Novosibirsk?’: It’s more ‘why Russia?’, really. I wanted a country where east meets west, close enough to Japan to allow for close travelling, and where ice-hockey – and most ice-related sports – were considered pretty big things. Russia seemed the obvious answer. Novosibirsk was chosen for the city mostly out of a process of elimination – I didn’t want to use either Moscow or St. Petersburg but still wanted a big city – and practicality – Novosibirsk is big enough to have plenty of information available about it. Ergo, easier to research. ^^
> 
> \- On Tchaikovsky, Disney, and pretty songs: Disney used music from _The Sleeping Beauty_ ballet in their movie of the same name. If you look up the Sleeping Beauty Waltz on youtube you should hear a pretty familiar tune – a large segment of ‘Once Upon a Dream.’ (Which…is a Tsubasa song if ever I heard one.) Look it up in English, then in French, then in Japanese, if you’ve the time and are interested (and aren’t sick of the melody by that point). The English and the Japanese versions have pretty similar lyrics in terms of meaning, but the French…in French, it’s even more of a love song. The amount of ‘my love’s and ‘our destiny’s thrown in there… The exact same music for all of them, but oh, such very different songs.


End file.
